• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 4, 2009

From product brands and media publishers to non-profits and politicians, Facebook on Wednesday announced broad structural changes to make it easier for big voices to be heard throughout its network.

For one, to better serve as a broadcast medium, Facebook members large and small can now send out a stream of regular updates from their profile pages. Depending on receiver preferences, updates can also now be delivered in near real-time.

"The New York Times wants to publish things as they happen," said Chris Cox, director of product development at Facebook, during a presentation from its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. The network, he added, is "moving in a direction where profiles and pages are becoming the same thing."

The Times is part of a large and diverse group of big voices ready to take advantage of this evolving distribution channel, including the American Red Cross, CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper, CNN itself, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lance Armstrong, NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and U2.

In addition, Facebook will now allow members to send updates to upwards of 25,000 "friends"--up from the present limit of 5,000.

On March 11, the company also plans to roll out a new home page, which will reflect the network's deepening focus on streaming updates.

In order to avoid completely overwhelming its members, however, Facebook is also increasing their ability to filter incoming and outgoing updates.

All these efforts are intended to accommodate the broad sharing of information, according to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"Information sharing will keep moving faster and faster," he said.